People with early and mid-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) who display mental impairments, such as memory loss, reduced executive function and attention, can generally still perform their daily tasks reasonably well, usually with help from a family member, friend or care provider.
However, people with AD (or memory and cognitive impairment in general) can find social interactions, such as a conversation with another person (who may be a caregiver, doctor, friend) to be difficult, since they usually do not remember who the person is or the relevant information about them and may not be able to fully follow the conversation. The loss of memory in these interactions results in stress for the person with AD, and this is usually reflected in undesired behavior of the person, thus making it difficult for them to maintain a healthy social life.
Although systems exist for helping elderly people perform their basic tasks and activities, these systems are not specifically designed with people who have significant memory impairment, such as Alzheimer's disease, in mind, and are therefore not particularly suited to this use.
There is therefore a need for a method and system for assisting a person having memory impairment in social interactions.